bio.wikisort.org - Plant

Pellaea rotundifolia, the button fern, is a species of fern endemic to New Zealand, where it grows in scrub and forests.[2] It is also a popular garden plant (in zones 8 and 9) and house plant, tolerating low temperatures but not freezing.[3]

Button fern
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Division:	Polypodiophyta
Class:	Polypodiopsida
Order:	Polypodiales
Family:	Pteridaceae
Genus:	Pellaea
Species:	P. rotundifolia
Binomial name
Pellaea rotundifolia (G. Forst.) Hook.
Synonyms[1]
Allosorus rotundifolius (G.Forst.) Kunze Hemionitis rotundifolia (G.Forst.) Christenh. Platyloma rotundifolium (G.Forst.) J.Sm. Pteris rotundifolia G.Forst.

Pellaea rotundifolia is a compact, evergreen fern that can have more than 30 pairs of round, dark-green, leathery pinnae on fronds up to 18 in (460 mm) in length.[2] The Latin specific epithet rotundifolia means “round-leaved”.[4]

Cultivation

It needs acidic and well-drained soil; it does not appreciate the moist, humid conditions that most ferns require so does well with minimal watering.[2]

This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.[3][5]

References

• Sp. fil. 2:136. 1858.
• G. Brownlie, "Cyto-Taxonomic Studies on New Zealand Pteridaceae", New Phytologist, Vol. 56, No. 2 (Jul., 1957), pp. 207–209.
• Gerald J. Gastony and David R. Rollo, "Phylogeny and Generic Circumscriptions of Cheilanthoid Ferns (Pteridaceae: Cheilanthoideae) Inferred from rbcL Nucleotide Sequences", American Fern Journal, Vol. 85, No. 4, Use of Molecular Data in Evolutionary Studies of Pteridophytes (Oct. - Dec., 1995), pp. 341–360.
• Nico Vermeulen, Encyclopedia of House Plants, Taylor & Francis, 1999, pages 22–23. ISBN 978-1-57958-108-4.

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